Soutoura Group

Married mostly into monogamous households, the eight members of the Soutoura group are, on average, 36 years old and have four children. They all live in Djelibougou, one of the neighborhoods of Bamako. They know each other through neighborhood ties and from their work at the Djelibougou market. The group members all work in small-scale commerce selling condiments (onions, cabbage, tomatoes), groundnut paste, and plastic shoes.

In order to increase their business funds, the group members decided to collaborate with Soro Yirwaso. They are on their first group loan.

Safiatou, standing in the first row on the left in the photo, is a great seller of condiments. She plans to use her loan to buy eight trays of tomatoes, five sacs of onions, and six sacs of cabbage at wholesale from the market. Sales will be made at retail in Djelibougou to mostly female customers.

With this loan, Safiatou hopes to earn a average monthly profit of 80,000 francs CFA which will be reinvested in her business and used to support her household expenses.

Additional Information

Important Information

Soro Yiriwaso is a microfinance institution that works primarily in rural and semi-urban areas of Mali to provide underprivileged communities with access to financial services.The organization facilitates access for disadvantaged clients, particularly women, to new resources and services, fostering solidarity and cooperation among its clients. Kiva lenders’ funds will enable Soro Yiriwaso to expand its outreach and target even more underserved Malians involved in business and agriculture.

This is a Group Loan

In a group loan, each member of the group receives an individual loan but is part of a larger group of individuals. The group is there to provide support to the members and to provide a system of peer pressure, but groups may or may not be formally bound by a group guarantee. In cases where there is a group guarantee, members of the group are responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members in the case of delinquency or default.

Kiva's Field Partners typically feature one borrower from a group. The loan description, sector, and other attributes for a group loan profile are determined by the featured borrower's loan. The other members of the group are not required to use their loans for the same purpose.